You know the old saying, “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” Well, it’s not your father’s restaurant industry either. Arguably, it’s not even his food.
Think about it: Not so long ago, a guest might go into a restaurant, order a steak, a baked potato and a generic glass of red wine, and call it a day. The only choices might be how you wanted your steak cooked and whether you wanted sour cream and bacon bits with the potato.
Nowadays, a restaurant might offer the option of Wagyu or grass-fed beef—perhaps from a specific farm—cooked over oak or hickory, accompanied by a variety of different seasonal or locally sourced side dishes, and accessorized with a wine-by-the-glass list offering a dozen or more selections identified by vintage, varietal and producer.
Most of these developments have been fairly recent. The 21st century seasonal food movement began four decades ago at Chez Panisse, and the locavore movement is said to have originated in 2005. The Cruvinet came to California in 1979, but it took another decade or so for wine dispensing and preservation systems to become widely popular outside of wine-producing areas. Most Wagyu beef raised in the U.S. (a.k.a. American Kobe) was exported back to Japan until the early aughts and—like the majority of luxury food products—was only available to high-end chefs and the occasional specialty butcher shop.
The implications of these changes for both consumer and operator are huge. Now of course, customers not only know what heritage meats and organic farm-raised produce and keg wines are, they’re also clamoring for them.
This amounts to a whole new paradigm for the restaurant industry. Its hallmarks are:
Story Telling
You’ve heard it before but the maxim bears repeating: Today’s consumers want to know where their food comes from. At its simplest, that means calling out the provenance of ingredients such as proteins and produce on the menu, website and other forms of customer conversation. Synergy client LYFE Kitchen is a case in point; the website makes it totally clear what the company’s mission is in terms of sourcing and menuing, as well as commitment to the community and to responsible business practices.
Today’s consumers also want to engage with brands via social media, particularly in the visual universe of Instagram and Facebook, and savvy operators make it easier for their guests to become their ambassadors through these platforms.
Keeping it “Clean”
“Free from” is the new mantra. Free from artificial ingredients and colors, from GMOs, from antibiotics, from gluten and other trigger foods, from unnecessary processing. The trend goes hand-in-glove with the industry’s more to greater transparency and traceability in the food chain, as consumer desire for cleaner eating grows.
For chains that are dependent upon prepared products that contain high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives, growth hormones, and any of the above, the impact has already been significant. Ultimately, it means that many industry players will have to make the switch from processed ingredients to fresh—which will effectively change the way they do business.
Sustainability
While the exact definition of sustainability may be highly mutable, there’s no doubt that more guests are looking for it. According to the Hartman Group, in fact, 42% of respondents in a new “Diners’ Changing Behavior” report say they are receptive to meals that are sustainable and healthy. Many of these are members of the all-important Millennial cohort.
Issues range from sourcing (buying local allows family farms to continue thriving, and addresses the high carbon costs of imports and other foods from far away) to recycling and composting. One of the latest planks in the sustainability platform is the move to cut down on food waste, a movement that has gained surprising traction in the “garbage-to-plate” trend.
Emphasis on Craft
Artisanal, hand-shaken, small batch, made in house…. These signifiers of the “craft” movement in food and beverages have become very important in beverage marketing. It may have started with craft beer and craft cocktails, but the trend has rapidly expanded to include concepts like farmstead cheeses, nose-to-tail butchering, bread baked on premise, housemade pickles (witness Good Times Burgers’s new program), and even dishes and furniture made by local potters and woodworkers. It can also be as simple as menu descriptions verifying how carefully food is made, such as “made to order” and “smoked for hours over natural hardwood.”
The notion of craft means being honest and relevant, standing for quality, tradition and flavor. It also links back to freshness, transparency, sustainability, and the importance of connecting guest to experience through storytelling.
Welcome to the new paradigm.
Craft beer photo credit: CK Golf Solutions license CC by SA 2.0